The smile that graced my lips

· by · in free verse, poetry. ·

Dervished, danced to
frenzied fall
in silvered shadows
she’s the hallowed call
my past, my future;

but today she’s mist.

There are days
when still,
when the softness of her hair
is not a veil
to hide the smile that graced
my lips before.

Picture by Francesca Woodman

Picture by Francesca Woodman

I really loved this picture, and reading more about the brief life of Francesca really made it even more interesting. I think I weaved her destiny a little bit into this brief before. Tess has a way of always choosing interesting picture for Magpie Tales, and I think it fitted our prompt for the quadrille at dVerse as well. 44 words including the words dance (used as a verb with a verb). The prompt closes Monday evening, but we will be back in a few week.

29 responses to “The smile that graced my lips”

    • I concur! Though you had me at “Dervished, danced to
      frenzied fall” It’s such a great opening line I reread it a dozen times and it’s still fantastic foreshadowing!

  2. This is pure magic. I’m swooning. 😉

    What you did with the centerpiece line is SO clever … letting it have some breathing room to draw out the word “missed.”

    This is my favorite part:
    “danced to
    frenzied fall
    in silvered shadows”

    And I love that “fall”/”call” rhyme.

    I really like that you left it chaste enough that the “she” could be your mother just as well as it could be your lover. And remember before, when we were talking about poetry herself being your lover? I can see that possibility in this poem as well.

  3. The mist/missed is so clever, and the whole poem suits the photo so well–the movement is like a veil here. Take care, Bjorn. Glad you are enjoying winter there. k.

  8. I adore what you did with the prompt . I wrote something earlier and will post it probably tomorrow as I don’t have much time to read this evening.

  21. Awesome! Brought to mind, and indeed, is very close, I think (if two lines of the third stanza are combined) to being a perfect puente (or bridge poem) – a 3 stanza form created by James Rasmusson. The middle stanza, with its one line acts as a bridge (puente) between the 1st and 3rd stanza and functions as the ending line of the first stanza and as the beginning line of the third stanza. The first and third stanzas (which have an equal number of lines) convey a related but different element or feeling.

  22. Not to put too fine a point on it – but forgot to mention: the middle one line stanza is enclosed in tildes (~) to distinguish itself as both the last line of the first stanza and the first line of the last stanza.

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